Kill Your Projects, Not Your Clients
Here's an interesting idea from Scott Young that may just help with your growing to-do list: Set up a Project Kill Day. In short, you schedule a distraction-free, off-site day to "kill" off one of your projects. Check out the entire post for his step-by-step guide.
Not sure which projects you have that merit an entire day? Try writing down the first client-related task you think of in the morning and the last one you think about before bed. If it is the same one for more than a day or two, kill it before it kills you!
15 Thoughts for Law Students: A Mini-Manifesto
I've written a few mini-manifestos for clients and lawyers before and remain quite enamored with the format. Here's one for law students with some random (semi-related) thoughts on law school and the legal profession. Let me know what you think, and feel free to add your own in the comments.
1. Law school is a trade school. The only people who don't believe this to be true are the professors and deans.
2. Want to piss off your professors? Ask them if they've ever run a successful law practice.
3. Being good at writing makes you a good law student. Being good atunderstanding makes you a good lawyer. Being good at arguing makes youan ass.
4. You can learn more about client service by working at Starbucks for three weeks than you can by going to law school for three years.
5. Law school doesn't teach you to think like a lawyer. Law schoolteaches you to think like a law professor. Believe me, there's a hugedifference.
6. You can get through law school without understanding anything about what it is like to be a lawyer. That is a terrible shame.
7. The people who will help you the most in your legal career aresitting next to you in class. Get to know them outside of law school.They are pretty cool people. They are even cooler when you stop talking about the Rule Against Perpetuities.
8. Your reputation as a lawyer begins now. Don't screw it up (and quitbragging on your MySpace page about how drunk you got last night).
9. Law is a precedent-based profession. It doesn't have to be a precedent-based business. Be prepared to challenge the prevailing business model. Somebody has to.
10. Experienced lawyers work with clients. Young lawyers work with paper. You like working with paper, right?
11. You are about to enter a world where getting your work done in half the time as your peers doesn't get you rewarded. It gets you more work.
12. Except for prosecutors and public defenders, nobody tries cases anymore. Especially not second year associates.
13. You have a choice: You can help people and make a decent living, or you can help corporations and make a killing. Choose wisely.
14. There are plenty of things you don't know, and even more things you'llnever know. Get used to it. Use your ignorance to your benefit. Themost significant advantage you possess over those who've come beforeyou is that you don't believe what they do.
15. People don't tell lawyer jokes just because they think they are funny. They tell lawyer jokes because they think they are true. Spend your career proving them wrong.
Outsource Your (Non)Legal Practice
I'm a big fan of Tim Ferriss' book The 4-Hour Workweek, though some of his suggestions are a bit impractical for an office-dwelling professional. That's why I really liked this post on 43 Folders that gives several realistic examples of ways to outsource your personal and professional life. Well worth a read, if only for this fantastic advice for those to whom "delegation" is a four letter word:
It’s easy to tell yourself that it would take too long to figure outhow to explain a project to someone else than to do it on your own. After all, you’re the only person who has the grand picture,understands the purpose of the work, and is familiar with the details.But with a bit of pluck and a capacity for seeing projects for whatthey truly are (collections of discrete actions,) you’ll be astonishedat how much you can rid yourself of. I have often found that what atfirst seemed daunting to explain to someone else actually just requireda few moments thinking about how the problem needed to beapproached—which is a process I was going to have to go through anyway if I were ever going to complete the task in the first place.
The Mobile Lawyer 2.0
It has been a long while since I've been so WOW'd by a business model as I've been this morning. Simply put, this is the BEST template I've seen for building a home-based practice from, of all people, a physician. Dr. Jay Parkinson, MD is building a web-based medical practice. From his website:
- I AM A NEW KIND OF PHYSICIAN.
- I strictly make house calls either at your home or work.
- Once you become my patient and I've personally met you, we can also e-visit by video chat, IM and email for certain problems and follow-ups.
- I'm based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. My fees are very reasonable.
- I'm extremely accessible. Contact me by phone, email, IM, text, or video chat. Mon-Fri 8AM-5PM. 24/7 for emergencies.
- I specialize in young adults age 18 to 40 without traditional health insurance.
- When you need more than I provide, I make sure you wisely spend your money and pay the lowest price for the highest quality.
- I've gathered costs for NYC specialists, medications, x-rays, MRIs, ER visits, blood tests, etc...just like a Google price search.
- I mix the service of an old-time, small town doctor with the latest technology to keep you and your bank account healthyl
How much for this service? According to the "How it Works" on his site, his fee is "far less than your yearly coffee budget but a little more than your Netflix." His web site also provides "Real Life Examples" that describe, in plain English, how you'd use his service. Oh, and he's blogging, too.
Lawyers, if you are looking for a real dose of inspiration (or a glimpse to the future of mobile practice) you HAVE to check this Parkinson's site and business model. Simply brilliant. Great idea, great web site, amazing copy. If I were still practicing, I'd steal it in a heartbeat. Look at it now.
Via: Zoli's Blog.
To Make More Money, Charge More Money
Reluctant to raise your fees, check out this article from CNNMoney.com on how to raise prices while keeping customers. Worth a read. Here's a taste:
Many business owners assume that any price increase will drivecustomers away. But consultants who work with small companies say theyoften under-estimate their pricing power. Those owners know their costsare rising but sometimes forget that fuel prices are soaring worldwideand that workers are demanding higher wages even in China, India, andother developing countries. Many small U.S. manufacturers, inparticular, become so focused on price competition with larger rivalsor foreign ones that they don't appreciate the value of the addedquality they offer, their fast and reliable delivery, or other superiorservices they provide - or could provide - to justify higher bills.
Thoughtful Law Blog
David Bilinsky has a great new blog: Thoughtful Legal Management. Check it out!
Remind Yourself It is Your Money You're Not Earning
Just got back from the American Immigration Lawyer's Association annual convention. I presented twice there, hosted an Idea Market and an Idea Gallery (more on those later) and hung out with a bunch of cool immigration law practitioners.
One tip I shared at a round table discussion that really resonated with a practitioner who had a mountain of accounts receivables is this one:
Every month, when you print out your bills and your accounts receivable statement, clip a family photo to the top of the stack. Whenever you are tempted to write down a bill or not try to collect on one, look at your family before you make the decision. While there are dozens of great reasons to reduce a bill or not collect upon an amount owed, every dollar you don't collect is a dollar your family doesn't get to spend on something important, or you don't get to donate to a worthy cause.
Forget Big Associate Salaries
My friend Kareem shares the best three-step compensation scheme ever (from Alfie Kohn):
- Pay people well.
- Pay people fairly.
- Do everything possible to take money off people's minds.
Extreme Outsourcing
I just happened across Timothy Ferriss' site (blog) and saw this article on "Outsourcing Life" that I'd like to share. If you are experimenting with outsourcing work in your firm, check out some of the extreme suggestions on outsourcing a few other things. Timothy has a book coming out. I've asked for a review copy and will share my thoughts if it comes my way.
Unlimited Vacation?
Once lawyers get past the billable hour and are judged on the quality of their work, perhaps their firms may implement a vacation policy like Netflix's:
When it comes to vacation, Netflix has a simple policy: take as much as you'd like. Just make sure your work is done.Employees at the online movie retailer often leave for three, four, even five weeks at a time and never clock in or out. Vacation limits and face-time requirements, says Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings, are "a relic of the industrial age."
"The worst thing is for a manager to come in and tell me: `Let's give Susie a huge raise because she's always in the office.' What do I care? I want managers to come to me and say: `Let's give a really big raise to Sally because she's getting a lot done' - not because she's chained to her desk."
Thanks to Creative Class for the link.
Who is Going to Pay for Those 18 Minutes?
NYT article on the perils of multitasking. The money quote:
In a recent study, a group of Microsoftworkers took, on average, 15 minutes to return to serious mental tasks,like writing reports or computer code, after responding to incominge-mail or instant messages. They strayed off to reply to other messagesor browse news, sports or entertainment Web sites.
There are some other good studies mentioned in the article. Worth a read -- if you've got the time.
The Bonus Boost: Better Peformance
File this one away in the "things that make you go hmmmmm" department. This article in Science Daily (hat tip: Guy) suggests employee bonuses work WAY better then pay raises in motivating employees:
Giving a 1 percent raise boosts employee job performance by roughly 2percent, but offering that same money in the form of a bonus that isstrongly linked to a job well done can improve job performance byalmost 20 percent, finds a new Cornell study on the relationshipbetween pay and performance.
Building the Perfect Innovation Retreat - Call for Help
Readers, I need your help. I'm designing an intensive, two-day, innovation-focused law firm retreat that I can sell to medium and large firms. Before it goes "live" I need to do it at least twice to iron out the kinks and make it hum.
Here's what I'd like to do:
- Do the retreat for a firm of 10-20 lawyers, their staff and selected clients (yes, I said clients). The cost to the firm will be my travel, lodging and retreat materials. I'll also ask the firm to pay me an amount commensurate with the "value" of the retreat to the firm -- but only if they thought it was the best retreat they'd ever done.
- Assemble a group of 10-20 small firm or solo lawyers for a two-day innovation retreat here in St. Louis in early June. Because most solo and small-firm lawyers don't get the benefits of a law firm retreat, I want to bring several of these lawyers together to collaborate with one another and to bring innovation into all of their practices. Also, I want to see if the concept of a solo/small firm "retreat" will work. If I get enough people, I'll set the fee at an amount sufficient to cover my costs (probably at $250 per attendee or so). Each attendee will be on their own for travel and lodging.
Let me know if you are interested. You can e-mail me at Matt@LexThink.com if you or your firm would like to participate. Thanks.
Start Wine-ing in Your Business
Hugh at Gaping Voidingvoid recaps some "lessons learned" in his first two years of working with Stormhoek winery. Just a few of his points should resonate with anyone (including lawyers) trying to build an amazing business:
14. We can make this as lucrative and as intellectually stimulating as we want to. The ball is in our court.16. What's driving innovation and sales on our end is not a technological issue, it's a cultural issue. Get the right culture going, and the tech looks after itself.
17. When I started working in the advertising business as a young buck in London, back in the late 1980s, Bartle Bogle Hegarty were considered the best game in town, even if they were not the biggest agency. Every young advertising student aspired to have a gig there one day, everyone daydreamed of one day having John Hegarty return their calls. The were considered the Praetorian Guard. Within two years from now, I want every smart, driven young person in the wine trade to be thinking the same way about us. That to me would be a far more worthy definition of "success", than how many cases we sell.
Make Tomorrow E-Mail Free
How about implementing "No E-Mail Fridays" at your office? Check out this ABC News article to learn why it may be a good idea.
Office Motivation Hack: Complete a Puzzle
Here's another fantastic Parent Hack that could work wonders in an office setting:
My 7 year-old son can be particularly stubborn and no matter howmuch we beg, plead, or reason with him, he stands his ground. SometimesI resort to bribery. He likes puzzles so I came up with puzzles to helphim do certain things. It started the summer before Kindergarten -- healready knew how to tie his shoes, but claimed that he “forgot” howover the summer since he wore sandals all summer. So I found a pair ofrunning shoes that he wanted online (I used Zappos.com)and printed out two full-sized pictures. One was in color and theother black and white. I then decided that I wanted him to tie hisshoes for two weeks on his own before I would buy him the shoes hewanted so I cut the colored picture into the appropriate number of“puzzle” pieces. Then every time he tied his shoes on his own heearned one piece that he could tape onto the black and white picture inthe correct spot. When the puzzle was complete we ordered him hisshoes.
What are the goals for your office, and what is an appropriate reward when the goals are met? Can you make a huge "puzzle" for your workers to complete as they reach appropriate milestones?
Send Your Staff to the Store with Gift Cards
Quick tip from Parent Hacks that would work for office personnel too:
Our nanny does a lot of our food shopping for us. It's something for her to do with the baby, and she likes helping out. Usually, I give her a chunk of cash that seems like enough to cover things, and then she gives me the change along with the receipts. Last week it occurred to me that I should just pick up gift cards for her to use! She usually goes to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. Both of these places sell gift cards (as do most supermarkets). I can put a big lump sum on each card, and then she no longer needs to worry about keeping my cash separate, etc.
Relationship Economies for Professionals
I highly recommend this essay by Doc Searls on "Relationship Economies." In it, he recounts a conversation he had with a Nigerian pastor about markets and transactions:
"Pretend this is a garment", Sayo said, picking up one of those blueairplane pillows. "Let's say you see it for sale in a public market inmy country, and you are interested in buying it. What is your firstquestion to the seller?"
"What does it cost?" I said.
"Yes", he answered. "You would ask that. Let's say he says, 'Fifty dollars'. What happens next?"
"If I want the garment, I bargain with him until we reach an agreeable price."
"Good.Now let's say you know something about textiles. And the two of you getinto a long conversation where both of you learn much from each other.You learn about the origin of the garment, the yarn used, the dyes, thename of the artist, and so on. He learns about how fabric is made inyour country, how distribution works, and so on. In the course of thisyou get to know each other. What happens to the price?"
"Maybe I want to pay him more and he wants to charge me less".
"Yes. And why is that?"
"I'm not sure."
"You now have a relationship".
Though price still matters in the developing world, the pastor suggested, relationships matter more:
It's a higher context with a higher set of values, many of which aretrivialized or made invisible when viewed through the prism of price.Relationship is not reducible to price, even though it may influenceprice. Families and friends don't put prices on their relationships.(At least not consciously, and only at the risk of cheapening or losinga relationship.) Love, the most giving force in any relationship, isnot about exchanging. It is not fungible. You don't expect a payback ora rate of return on the love you give your child, your wife or husband,your friends.
Read the entire essay the next time you are deciding whether to focus your energies on attracting new clients vs. building stronger relationships with existing ones.